1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a smoothness measuring device for measuring the smoothness of a surface to be measured and a recording apparatus to which the smoothness measuring device is applied.
The term "recording apparatus" covers, for example, an electronic typewriter, a copying apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, a printer and the like. Also, as the surface to be measured, mention may be made of recording mediums which include, for example, printing paper, plain paper, worked paper, cloth and plastic sheets for overhead projectors (OHP).
2. Related Background Art
In printing apparatuses (recording apparatuses), particularly, non-impact type printing apparatuses such as heat transfer printers, ink jet printers, light emitting element (LED) printers and bubble jet printers which do not involve pressure fixation, the quality of print and the fixativeness of ink are varied by the smoothness of the printing paper which is a printing medium. So, printing paper of the cotton line such as BOND paper called high quality paper had a tendency that it was generally inferior in the quality of print and fixativeness to plain paper. In addition, such a tendency is also seen more or less in impact type printers, for example, daisy wheels and wire printers.
So, it is known to measure the smoothness of a recording medium, change the recording conditions on the basis of the result of the measurement and improve the quality of recording.
Smoothness test methods heretofore which were widely known as methods of measuring the smoothness of the recording medium include the following methods.